MISSOURI. MOTHER OF THE WEST
rnotograph by U. C. Conkling
INSPECTING SCENERY FOR A MISSOURI ZOO
These giant boulders of Arcadia, Missouri, are to be reproduced in cement for use in pro
viding a prowling place for lions, leopards, and tigers in the cageless animal pits of the Forest
Park Zoological Gardens of St. Louis.
settled its small wild animals tend to in
crease rather than decrease. The inten
sive cultivation of farms, with much
grain and fruit, provides for more birds
and insects, which in turn supply food
for more small "varmints" like coons,
minks, and skunks. Where big poultry
farms flourish, weasels multiply.
In cabbage, pea, and truck-farm re
gions, rabbits run riot and foxes get fat.
Showing how the balance of nature is
maintained, I know of one instance where
a chicken farmer foolishly poisoned all
the foxes in his community and in a few
months found his crops devoured by
rabbits.
THE FUR TRADE HELPED TO MAKE
MISSOURI HISTORY
Of these facts the settlement of Mis
souri affords an interesting illustration.
The story of the State itself begins with
the coming of the whites, who set up as
fur traders where St. Louis now is.
Pierre Laclede Liguest poled his barge up
from New Orleans, taking three months
to do a trip which trains now make in 20
hours, and founded a firm which later
traded as far west as the Oregon coast.
It was these hardy Missouri traders,
indeed, who actually pushed the Hud
son's Bay Company back when this Brit
ish concern had ventured as far south as
Utah.
In those early days packs of Missouri
furs were carried as far as Montreal for
sale. Indians, Canadians, and Americans
trapped all up the Mississippi and the
Missouri, and traded their pelts at St.
Louis for hardware, tools, firearms, and
medicines.
The skins of the bear, the deer, and the
wildcat, once so common, are now, of
course, no longer taken in Missouri in
commercial quantities; but trade in the
pelts of smaller animals has multiplied a
hundredfold. It is said the bulk of all
furs produced in North America comes
from within a radius of 600 miles of St.
Louis; and in 1920, i,o68,ooo shipments
came into this city.
Hardly a village in all America, where
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